A Guide to Binaural Beats

Intro

I have been getting a lot of PM's lately with people asking me how I use binaural beats and alarms to have lucid dreams. Well, I figured it was time I wrote a guide to what I do to try and help as many people out as I can :)


Background Info

From much time spent reading various articles about brain activity during REM sleep, it seems that your brain likes to operate in roughly 90 minute cycles of sleep, with each cycle being composed of very deep, dreamless sleep, intermediate sleep with vidid dreams, and a short waking period that actually does wake your physical body as well. When in the really deep, dreamless sleep, your brain is operating at a frequency called delta. It is a very low frequency, because during this stage of sleep is when the rest of your body is healing, and your brain is directing activities that coincide with that. Then however, when it switches to the intermediate stage with vivid dreams, this is where your brain itself is becoming active, almost like it is 'defragging' itself you might say. This frequency is called theta, and is a little higher than delta. After finishing up in the theta stage of activity, the brain begins to do s 'system rebooot' if you will, of the body. Basically, it begins to operate at a much higher frequency, called alpha, which begins to wake your whole body. The average human will awake after each sleep cycle, even though most times they do not remember the event. Now, the binaural beats come in...

Binaural Beats come into Play

Now you may be thinking... "How do binaural beats make me lucid?" The answer... they don't. Binaural beats are used to help keep your concious mind in-synch with your brain's subconcious activity, so that you are able to practice other lucid techniques at the most successful times. A very nice by-product of this is that it also tends to help your nights be more restful because your whole body is in-synch during sleep. Here is an overview of what is happening when you use binaural beats. When you use the beats, you are basically giving your body a reminder that it needs to switch out of delta work, and into theta, and then into alpha. I believe the beats work well for some and not others because some people's bodies are already very good at switching between different tasks during sleep, while others need a little help, hence the binaural beats. You are just helping your brain out by giving it the orders, so it can focus on just getting the job done. All of this is done just to help your body keep a schedule it can stick to during sleep, giving you more restful nights. Now that we know how binaural beats help you achieve a good REM cycle, here is how they help with lucid dreams...

Binaural Beats and the Lucid Routine

Well, before I can give you specific instructions as to what you should do when using binaural beats, it would probably be best if I quicky explain a little bit about the audio files you will be using to avoid confusion and any of those "What the heck is this guy talking about" moments. :D As you can probably guess, the delta waves file, theta waves file, and alpha waves file are exactly what they sound like. Each one is just a recording of the specific frequency for 10 minutes. I uploaded these simply in case you wanted to try experimenting with creating your own personal REM cycle playlist out of the waves, since each brain is different. :) This leads us into the REM Cycle file. This file is just a composition of the three frequencies. It starts out by playing the delta wave frequency for 20 minutes, to get your brain working in delta. It then switches into theta for 70 minutes so that you can have plenty of time to dream and your brain will also be able to get its work done at this frequency. Well, now that it has been 90 minutes, and that is how long the typical REM cycle is, the REM Cycle file now plays alpha waves for 6 minutes, to prepare your brain to start waking your body for a quick 'reboot'. Now that we have that out of the way, here is what you do...

When you first go to sleep, simply put in your earbuds, start the REM Cycle recording (mine or yours if you made a custom one), and go to sleep. At the end of the REM Cycle recording, which will be 90 minutes after the time at which you fall asleep, the alpha waves should of got your brain starting to wake the rest of your body. Now, if you want to actually get up now that your body is awake, (so that you can work on WILD's or make a DJ entry, I would recommend some rock music or something. Nothing TOO heavy, just something you know that you will wake to when you hear it. Here is what is happening to your body / brain when this is happening. The cycle just finishes, with the alpha waves telling your brain to wake your body for a 'reboot'. You wake very quickly, most liklely don't remember it, and go back to sleep. Since the alpha waves can only aid your body in the reboot part, you still need a little extra help actually becoming concious and awake, so you play the music to give your body reception from one of the senses (hearing) so it knows that is is awake, and BAM, you can now go make a DJ entry or work on WILD's. Basically, if you only want to use the beats to help your body have a restful sleep, don't play the music. If you want to fully wake after a cycle though, just put a couple of songs that you know will wake to after the REM Cycle recording and you ought to wake right up. Here are how the playlists would look depending on what you want to do with the beats

(Just having restful night)
REM Cycle > REM Cycle > REM Cycle > REM Cycle > ... (Basically, just repeat the REM Cycle recording over and over

(Waking fully from sleep cycle)
REM Cycle > Music > REM Cycle > Music > REM Cycle > Music...

Now, for those of you who only want to go as far as using the beats for getting rested or using them to wake after a sleep cycle and work on WILD's, that is about all you need to know. However, for anyone wanting to go advanced with this and work on DEILD's with the alarm, read on...

Binaural Beats, Alarms, and DEILD's
To use the alarm to practice DEILD's you will have to use the second playlist I suggested, because you will need to get in the habit of waking after each sleep cycle. Here is what you do...
So you just wake up to your favorite band (which is Crush 40 right?), now what do you do? Well VERY FIRST you should do a reality check just to be safe. Then, after you have finished making your DJ entry or anything else you do when you wake in the middle of the night, check the time. If you know that you will still have time for another full REM Cycle, simply go the the next one on the list and go back to sleep, for two reasons. One, you obviously want as much restful sleep as possible. Two, the farther into the night you get, the longer and more vivid your dreams become, so obviously you want to have your lucids just before you get up so they are as long and vivid as possible :) Anyways, now you have gone back to sleep for a second cycle. After another 90 minutes you wake up again, rockin' out to some more Crush 40. :D After doing your reality check, maybe getting a sip of water, and making another entry, you then check the time again. This time however, you realize you only have an hour left to sleep. Now is where the alarm comes into play...

(Have to do some file explaination again really quick...) The alarm file is simply a recording of an alarm, tha goes off every 15 to 20 minutes.
Now that you have made the decesion to start the alarm, you need to turn up the volume (trust me, this is THE #1 problem if you aren't waking form it), and then simply fall back asleep. Don't lay awake for a long time trying to enter SP and do a WILD, just try and get back to sleep. Now, since it is the morning hours and your dreams are longer and more vivid, you ought to start dreaming pretty quick after falling back asleep. Then, the alarm will wake you up, right in the middle of your dream! This is what you want however. Now, here is where practice makes perfect :) So say you were having this fabulous dream and then the alarm wakes you up. Focus all of your effort on recalling this dream, and this dream only. (Don't worry, after practicing for a while, this only gets easier) Anyways, take at the most 3 - 5 seconds trying to recall what you were JUST dreaming. Either way, go back to sleep ASAP, before the rest of your body wakes up! If you spend too much time thinking about it, everything else will wake up as well and you kinda just ruined your chances of re-entering the dream easily for the night. :-/ If you can recall what you were JUST dreaming, just focus on the details of the dream and before you know it you will be back in that same dream, and hopefully recognize it ane become lucid! If you couldn't recall anything, just go back to sleep and wait for the next chance when the alarm goes off again. Basically, each time the alarm goes off, try and recall what you were JUSt dreaming and as soon as you do (or even if you don't), go back to sleep ASAP before your body wakes all the way up.

Links

Here are the links to the audio files...
Alpha Waves - http://www.4shared.com/music/j0TWxF1C/Alpha_Waves.html
Delta Waves - http://www.4shared.com/music/J1t3YiNZ/Delta_Waves.html
Theta Waves - http://www.4shared.com/music/R9PHrUrl/Theta_Waves.html
Rem Cycle - http://www.4shared.com/music/uuXYU8LY/REM_Cycle.html
Alarm - http://www.4shared.com/music/osm349g...l?refurl=d1url

Other Stuff
(This stuff relates to using an audio editing program, such as Audacity)
If you want to create your own REM Cycle recording, here is the basic outline of what it should have...
1.Have at least one set of each wave, delta, theta, and alpha
2. Be around 90 minutes long
3. That's really about it. I would recommend doing delta, before theta, and alpha last obviously. At least for me it seems that I always have some heavy duty sleep before I start having any dreams, so I always put the delta before the theta, but you never know! Experiment and find what works best for you, although really, if you put alpha waves in the middle of the recording, I will just laugh at you. ;)

The alarm... If you find that you are having trouble falling asleep before the alarm goes off the first time, I would just make the first dead zone longer. Also, experiment with the alarm as well! It goes off in the 15 minute intervals because that is what worked for me, but if you want the intervals to be longer or shorter, go ahead! Everyone is different.


Summary

About a two months ago I began to feel somewhat desparate in terms of trying to have a lucid dream. I had been working so hard on MILD's and various other things but they just weren't working. Then I started using the binaural beats along with this alarm and I can safely say I am now having a lucid about every other night!!! Whether you are just using the beats to help get a better night's sleep, or you go on to try the alarm method, I really hope that binaural beats can help you out.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the guide and it can help you out.

See ya!